I found this article on
http://arxiv.org, which publishes new papers of astrophysics - this article, arXiv:0809.0209, is from September 3, 2008. Anyway, the article tries to determine how fast Usain Bolt could have run the 100 meter dash in Beijing 2008 if he had not slowed down at the end. Moreover, the physicists compare Bolts motion relative to the other runners during the 100 meter dash with the relative motions of stars within a star cluster!!! Go figure!!!
Velocity dispersions in a cluster of stars: How fast could Usain Bolt have run?
H. K. Eriksen, J. R. Kristiansen, O. Langangen, I. K. Wehus
Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted American Journal of Physics; high-resolution NBC footage allowed better measurements between 6 and 8 seconds compared to version 1
Subjects: Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph); Astrophysics (astro-ph)
Since that very memorable day at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a big question on every sports commentator's mind has been "What would the 100 meter dash world record have been, had Usain Bolt not celebrated at the end of his race?" Glen Mills, Bolt's coach suggested at a recent press conference that the time could have been 9.52 seconds or better. We revisit this question by measuring Bolt's position as a function of time using footage of the run, and then extrapolate into the last two seconds based on two different assumptions. First, we conservatively assume that Bolt could have maintained Richard Thompson's, the runner-up, acceleration during the end of the race. Second, based on the race development prior to the celebration, we assume that he could also have kept an acceleration of 0.5 m/s^2 higher than Thompson. In these two cases, we find that the new world record would have been 9.61 +/- 0.04 and 9.55 +/- 0.04 seconds, respectively, where the uncertainties denote 95% statistical errors.
As you can see, Bolt could have run the 100 meter dash in 9.61 +/- 0.04 seconds, or in 9.55 +/- 0.04 seconds, at least from an astrophysical point of view!
Usain Bolt runs 100 meters A star cluster in motion Ann
